self-abortion

At the moment, the idea of over-the-counter access to medication abortion in the United States sounds crazy. But preliminary data suggests it is safe

Friday 28 April 2017

The coat hanger – often with a red line through it – is a powerful feminist symbol. Conjuring images of women suffering unspeakable consequences of unsafe abortion, the coat hanger sends a foreboding message about a past we must not return to. The implications are clear: abortions women give themselves when they cannot access legal services are dangerous.

While the coat hanger rhetoric has been useful for the abortion rights movement, it has become problematic in the 21st century. Coat hangers are no longer the method of choice for women who want to end a pregnancy on their own. In my research in Texas, women much more commonly report using medications or herbs when they try to self-induce an abortion. Some of these medications are very safe and effective, while the problem with herbs is that they are often ineffective.

MYSURU: A 35-year-old pregnant woman who checked into the HD Kote government hospital complaining of stomachache, had an abortion, leading doctors to file a complaint that it could be a case of forceful abortion.

Lakshmamma, a resident of Krishnapura village in HD Kote, 200km from state capital Bengaluru, was widowed five years ago. The couple had a child. Police said after her husband's death, she was in a relationship with a man from the same village, who is yet to be traced. The pregnancy is suspected to be a result of this relationship.

As reproductive healthcare becomes increasingly inaccessible in America, more and more women are taking matters into their own hands—and some activists think they should be allowed to do so free of punishment.

In 2012, Jennifer Whalen discovered that her 16-year-old daughter was pregnant. She promised to support her in whatever decision she made, and after a few days, the high schooler decided she couldn't have a baby. From there, Whalen and her daughter began investigating how to obtain an abortion in their rural town of Washingtonville, Pennsylvania.

They discovered that the nearest clinic was 75 miles away, and the procedure alone would cost between $300 and $600—two huge barriers, especially given the fact that the family had only one car. After searching online for another solution, Whalen stumbled upon a website selling misoprostol and mifepristone—the FDA-approved regimen for a medication abortion—for $45. She purchased the pills.

Donald Trump has flirted with punishing women for their abortions. But some already are prosecuted under a variety of laws in what is murky legal territory

by Molly Redden

Tuesday 22 November 2016, The Guardian

In late March, Donald Trump sat down for a town hall-style interview with Chris Matthews. The candidate at the time was still crisscrossing himself on abortion rights – should Planned Parenthood be defunded? Was Roe v Wade settled law? – and Matthews made several attempts to pin him down.

“If you say abortion is a crime or abortion is murder, you have to deal with it under law,” Matthews said. “Should abortion be punished?… Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle?”

Hotlines around the world are providing women with the information they need to safely terminate a pregnancy, even in countries where abortion is illegal.
By Jill Filipovic
Oct 03, 2016, Cosmopolitan

Inna Hudaya was a woman in trouble. Lying in a shoddy hotel room, she squeezed her eyes closed as an old woman performed an abortion on her with no anesthesia and no painkillers. They barely spoke a word after the exchange of money — a lot of money, money Hudaya had borrowed and for which she had sold many of her possessions including her motorbike to repay. This, Hudaya thought to herself, is how I will die.

But what else was she supposed to do? She was 22, pregnant, unmarried, and living in Indonesia, a country where abortion remains illegal in nearly all cases and out-of-wedlock pregnancy is intensely stigmatized. A medical student, Hudaya was just getting a toehold on a life she hoped would keep her out of Tasikmalaya, the conservative city she fled after high school. Having a baby would mean the end of everything: her studies, her relationship with her family, her freedom.

Access to abortion information and support saves lives – from today women across Africa and worldwide have a new source of help

Abortion is a common and normal experience in women’s lives. We must reclaim women’s right to abortion and to information about reproductive health and rights.

Clear information on the safe use of abortion medicines must be made more accessible across languages and cultures.

To meet this need, guidelines and information needed for the use of abortion pills at home, regardless of a woman’s geography and legal context, are posted on the Women Help Women website. The information is also shared via email with anyone who contacts the site.

Women Help Women runs a multilingual information centre about the use of abortion pills. Requests for information and for help come mostly from women living in settings where access to abortion is legally restricted. They can request abortion pills and/or contraceptives online. A small package is then sent to their home address.

In this March 30, 2015 file photo, Purvi Patel is taken into custody at the St. Joseph County Courthouse in South Bend, Ind., after being sentenced to 20 years in prison for feticide and neglect of a dependent. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP, File)

Rick Callahan, The Associated Press

Published Thursday, September 1, 2016 1:29PM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana woman whose feticide conviction for a self-induced abortion was overturned in July walked out of prison Thursday, a day after a judge resentenced her to less time than she had already served and ordered her immediate release.

Purvi Patel, 35, was with relatives when she left the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis about 10 a.m., said Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison.

Her attorney, Lawrence Marshall, said Patel is "very, very joyful that this day has come," but that she now needs privacy so that she can focus on rebuilding her life.

Mothers carry their children as they protest demanding the legalization of abortion during a demonstration to mark International Women's Day, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Unsafe abortion leads to 47,000 deaths and 5 million disabilities worldwide each year. One organization wants to help cut these numbers by giving online advice and counseling and, for some women, sending out medical abortion supplies they can’t get hold of at home.

Written by Christine Chung
Published on August 15, 2016
NewsDeeply.com

Every year there are an estimated 22 million unsafe abortions resulting in some 47,000 women dying and another 5 million women suffering from disabilities, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). One of the factors that could help prevent these deaths and disabilities is “legal induced abortion and care for complications of abortion,” says the WHO. But in many countries restrictive laws force women to turn to unsafe methods to end their pregnancies.

Launched 10 years ago by Dutch physician and activist Rebecca Gomperts, the Women on Web project based in the Netherlands tries to help women around the world access safe abortion services by sharing information, giving counseling and – in places where it’s needed and possible – sending the medical abortion drugs misoprostol and mifepristone through the mail for women to use at home.